Section 3
villages and farms to lodge and find provisions." But the Lord said to them, "You give them some thing to eat" (v. 13). The disciples asked the Lord to send the crowds away so that they could ob tain food for themselves, but the Lord told the disciples to give the crowd something to eat. Their concept was to ask people to do something; this is the principle of the law. But the Lord's concept is to give people something to enjoy; this is the principle of grace.
When the Lord told the twelve that they should give the crowd something to eat, they replied, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish among us" (v. 13). John 6:9 tells us that these five loaves are barley loaves. In figure, bar ley typifies the resurrected Christ (Lev. 23:10). Thus, the barley loaves signify Christ in resur rection as food to us. While the loaves are of the vegetable life, signifying the generating aspect of Christ's life, the fish are of the animal life, signifying the redeeming aspect of Christ's life. To satisfy our spiritual hunger, we need Christ's generating life as well as His redeeming life. Both aspects of His life are symbolized by small items—loaves and fishes. This indicates that the Man-Savior has come to be small pieces of food to feed His followers.